True peace originates solely from Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, contrasting it with the world's futile attempts to achieve peace through political or social means. It explains that peace with God is attained through justification by faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, as detailed in Romans 5, freeing believers from sin's condemnation. Furthermore, the sermon highlights the peace of God, which surpasses understanding and acts as a spiritual fortress, as described in Philippians 4, enabling believers to navigate life's trials with inner tranquility. Ultimately, Jesus' parting gift is His own peace, a deep reliance on the Father that transcends external circumstances, offering solace and strength amidst tribulation.
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The world is longing for peace. And even in our short lives, as we look back over the long history of the world, the little period that we have been on earth, we have seen so many efforts as bringing about peace. I remember in my earlier days after World War I, they got together and they built that great League of Nations over there, that great palace of peace. built by the League of Nations at Geneva in Switzerland. What did they do? They talked about peace, and they talked, and they talked, and they talked, and they talked, peace, peace.
And they had their motto, Peace and Safety, written on the great council chamber, peace and safety. But there was no mention of the Prince of Peace. In our verses this morning, it's the Prince of Peace who says, Peace, I leave with you. And he is the only one who can give peace. The only one, Peace, I leave with you. So the world tried and they talked about it and they schemed and planned and they divided up this country and that country and all the divisions only led to war. Then World War II came with all its carnage. It's millions of deaths.
Finally that ended. They started another thing. They didn't call it the League of Nations. They called it United Nations. They said, let's be more united this time and make a good job of it. United Nations. And I suppose there have been more wars since World War II in a short period than any other period in the world's history. Yet they're still talking about peace. Still talking about it. And United Nations grade building up there in New York, that's the center, and that's the symbol of peace. But you only got to listen to them talking. You see, there's no peace in their hearts at all.
There's bitter enmity between one country and another. There is no peace. And personally, I don't think this world will ever see peace. until the Prince of Peace himself brings peace. But here the Lord Jesus says to those few men in the upper room, Peace I leave with you. How could they know peace? The Son of God was just going out to be crucified. They were going to witness the most cruel I think the most cruel scene in the world's history, when the holy, harmless Son of God was spat upon and scourged and beaten and so cruelly treated and crucified.
And those very, very people that nailed the Son of God to the tree, those people that said away with him, and we don't want this man to reign over us, were the people amongst whom they were going to live for the rest of their lives. What could they know about peace among such people? peace I leave with you. I dare say every one of us in this room this morning can look back to days in our life when we really hadn't got peace. When we hadn't got peace with God the Holy Spirit of God had revealed to us that we were sinners and the Holy Spirit of God had revealed to us that sin cannot enter God's presence.
Sin can never enter heaven. And the Holy Spirit reveals from his word that sin will separate from God and separate from God for all eternity. How can we know peace? Maybe someone here this morning is not yet accepted the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior. You can't have peace. You can deceive yourself but you can't have real peace. You can have some pleasure, have some joy and satisfaction in the world, but you cannot have real peace down in your heart until you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And so the Lord says, Peace I leave with you. Let's turn over a moment to a very well-known scripture, Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Wherefore, verse one, wherefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Peace with God. That's to say, the God of judgment, the God of holiness and righteousness, the God who, because of his nature and because of what he is and who he is, must punish sin and cannot have sin in his presence. We sinners have peace.
with God. What amazing thing. Something had happened. Some tremendous thing happened. It made it possible for us to have peace with God. Let's look at it. Therefore being justified by faith. Justified by faith. The Roman Epistle tells us clearly that we are sinners. The Roman Epistle, there are three whole chapters spent on proving that man, both you and Gentile, Religious and irreligious are all sinners in God's sight and finally concludes that all the world is guilty before God, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God.
And then the apostle begins to tell us of the wonderful, wonderful plan of salvation which God worked out in the person of his son at the place called Calvary. And he says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but they now are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. When the Lord Jesus Christ died upon that cross, in that dread, lonely darkness, He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin became what we are, sinners. He wasn't a sinner, but he became sin then, not sinners.
He became sin. That black, dark, ugly thing which God hates. I'll never understand it. I take the shoes from off my feet. I have for years, as I read that wonderful verse, to Corinthians five, twenty-one. He who knew no sin was made sin for me. I can't understand it, but it happened in that lonely, dark, great hour. when the Lord Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures. And there I believe according to the Bible, he paid to the very utmost all the claims of the throne of God against sin for all who trust in him.
And I who was guilty and condemned in God's sight am now justified. That word justified means reckoned as if I had never sinned at all. The sin is put away. And we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. So the verse says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We can look up into God's faith. And instead of fearing the God of judgment, we look up into the face of a Father. God has become our Father in Christ Jesus. And we have peace with God.
justified by faith. How did I get this peace? By faith. I didn't do one small thing to meditate. I couldn't earn my salvation. It's impossible. We can do nothing. We can go to church. We can become church members. We can give away our goods and seek to feed the poor as some did. But that will not earn salvation. That's a wonderful thing for Christians to do. But that does not earn salvation for it. It is not of works lest any man should boast. By grace are ye saved through faith. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
There came a moment in my life, and I take it in the lives of many here this morning, when we realize that by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have eternal life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that's how we become justified, and that's how we get peace with God. And so when the Lord Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, I think he's referring to this wonderful peace, that he is going to our...
bring about and accomplish at the place called Calvary. When he said later on, arise, let us go hence. He was going out to work out that wondrous salvation that would give us peace with God for all eternity. That's the peace with God, being justified by faith. We have peace with God. Now turn with me to another scripture, Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, let me read you a wonderful verse. Verse five, verse, let's read verse six. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God.
Now this is not peace with God, we've got that, but the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, the peace of God. When I accept the Lord Jesus as my Savior, I get peace with God, my sins are put away, and the sin question is finished forever, and I am justified in his presence. But then I have to live in a world where there is enmity and wickedness and problems, How do I live? He says, be careful for nothing.
Don't be worried about anything. Don't be anxious. No anxious care. What a wonderful thing when we can live that way. No anxious care about anything. Be careful for nothing. But in everything, look at it, in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and then The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds. I understand this word keep. It's a military term. Frurisi, frurisi is the word in Greek, and it comes from the word frurian, which is a fort, a fortress, you know.
So the peace of God, like a great fortress wall, is all around me. The peace of God, the frurian, the great fortress, It's around me. And I'm inside. And the enemy can shoot his arrows and shoot his dot. But they can't break through the wall of the peace of God. The peace of God that passes all understanding is keeping like a fortress. Our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. That's what the Lord meant, I believe, when he said, My peace, I leave with you. All a wonderful peace which he accomplished and which he purchased with his own blood at the place called Calvary.
He made peace, it says. He made peace by the blood of his cross. Now, the second thing. A peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. What's the differential? What's the difference between peace I leave with you and my peace I give unto you? I would suggest that my peace refers to that wonderful, wonderful peace which the Lord Jesus personally enjoyed here on earth. Everyone was against him. He was despised and rejected of men. He was cast out.
He had nowhere to lay his head in a world that was all his own. He came to his own, his own received him not. And yet despite all the heartless, cold rejection of this world, he had a quiet peace. He calls it my peace. My peace. How wonderful. My peace. And he says, this is my parting gift to you. Not only am I leaving you peace with God and a peace that will garrison your hearts and minds as you go through life. But I'm giving you my peace. That wonderful peace. calm, reliance and faith he had in the Father day by day.
He never took a step without it was the Father's will. And he says, this is what I'm going to give to you. So that in this world of persecution, for he tells them in the sixteenth chapter, these things are spoken unto you that he should not be offended. They should put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. That's the world they were going to live in, and he says, Amid all that, you can have my peace. You know, it's hard to describe, but I sometimes think of it this way.
Think of a fugitive. Think of these men whom they have arrested this week, these terrible men that broke out of jail out there in Texas for a minute. And they're fleeing from justice. And they caught them down in a valley somewhere, you know. They could be walking in a beautiful meadow by a riverside, calm still, beautiful sunny morning with the birds singing and the wonderful green grass and the river flowing along, a scene of perfect peace and tranquility. And every time they move, they're looking back to see who's following them, chasing, running away from justice. Do they know peace?
Well, why not? The circumstances are wonderful. Beautiful country scene, beautiful riverside, beautiful trees and birds and flowers and grass. Why not have peace? It's very peaceful. Ah, yes, but it isn't the external circumstances that make the peace. Let me give another scene. Here's a raging battle in some grave war. The shot and shell is falling all around, and men are dying all around, and here's a young man who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got peace with God. And the peace of God that passes all understanding is like a fortress around him. And amid all the turmoil and carnage and noise of battle, he's got perfect peace with God.
Peace is something inside, you know. It doesn't depend upon the outside. And the Lord Jesus, amid this cruel, heartless world, inside he had perfect peace. Because he knew he was doing God's will. And I believe if you and I know that we are where God wants us to be. And that day by day we're doing his will. And doing the job he's given us to do. And we're trusting him. And by prayer and supplication. We're not anxious about anything. We make our request known to him. I believe we can understand what it means to have the peace of Christ. My peace. I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth give I unto you. What kind of peace can the world give? They can't give it. I've already mentioned all about the United Nations and the League of Nations and all the others. They cannot give peace. They've tried and tried in vain. They just patch it up for a little while and it breaks out again. Not as the world giveth give I you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. Now there are heavy hearts here this morning. There are problems, difficulties, sorrows, sick beds, hospitals, death beds. May not your heart be troubled, he says.
Amid all these things, you just enjoy my peace. I'm giving you as a parting legacy. This is my legacy to you. My peace I give unto you. What a wonderful way to end up those wonderful time that he spent with his disciples around that table in the upper room. He jumped through the various stages that we've talked about. He'd washed their feet. Judas had gone out and had been separated from that evil one. He told them that the very secret of their blessing is going to be that they love one another. He told them that he's going to leave them, but in my father's house there are many mansions.
I'm going to prepare a place for you. Don't worry about anything. Everything is right ahead. And after all, the things that are seen are temporal. The things that we get troubled with now, they're not going to last. The things which are not seen are eternal. And he's telling them about the eternal home, the Father's house. He tells them all about these things, and he told them, now if you've got any problems, I've got an answer for you. Whatsoever he shall ask in my name, I'll do it. So you just ask him for what you want. I prove that every day. Ask in faith, and God gives you what you ask for. Amazing. And so he says, I'm going to leave you in a world of trouble and sorrow and difficulty and persecution.
But I'm making every provision for you, and finally I'm telling you, amidst all the problems, you can have my peace. Now, beloved, let's have God, the Lord's peace. Why are we anxious? Why are we worried? Why are we troubled? My peace I give unto you. Verse twenty-eight. You heard how I said unto you, I go away. I call this the Lord's loyalty to the Father. We have the Lord's legacy to his people. Now the Lord's loyalty to the Father. You heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If he had loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I.
all through his earthly pilgrimage, the Lord had contact with the Father. Went out onto the Mount of Orleans at night, sometimes spent all night in prayer, sometimes up before the break of day to be in contact with the Father. And there was that continual day by day contact with the Father. And now he's going to go back. He says to them, You have heard, I said unto you, I go away. Now he said that in many places. We won't repeat them. I'm going away and I'll come again. If he loved me, you would rejoice. Don't be sorrowful, he said, but rejoice, rejoice because I'm going to the Father.
What did that mean to the Son of God? I'm going to the Father. It meant that he'd go back where he was understood. He'd go back to the place where he was honored and revered and respected as the Son of God. down here in this wicked world, they took the Son of God and spat in his face. And amid all that he had peace. But he said, it's not going to last much longer. I'm going away. I'm going away. And I'm going to leave this cruel scene. I'm going to leave this heartless rejection. I'm going to leave the mobs and the jeers and the crowds and the people that have rejected me and cast me out.
where I've been totally and absolutely misunderstood. And I'm going back to the place where they understand me. Above all that, he says, I'm going back to the Father. Why don't you rejoice, Stephen? Why don't you rejoice when you think that I'm going to leave this world that's treated me so badly, and I'm going back to the Father? If he loved me, he would rejoice. And this is a proof of love for those he calls his own, those whom he called his own in that upper room, This is a proof of their love that they rejoice because he's going back to the Father. That his sorrow and suffering and pilgrimage here is over. Ah, more than that. Before he goes back to the Father, the great work of Calvary has to be accomplished, and surely they can rejoice.
That at last God's claims are met, the claims of God's throne met, and there is a way for men to get back to God through the work of Christ. If he had loved me, he would rejoice because I said unto you, I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. Now in that particular position in which he was there on earth, it can truly be said, my Father is greater than I. He took a, let's read Philippians chapter two, go to Philippians again, and see just, we know it so well, but we'll read it. just what he did do when he humbled himself. It says in verse six that he was in the form of God, in the form of God.
And then in verse seven, he took upon him the form of a servant. I could truthfully say while she was in the form of a servant, the Father is greater than I. He never gave up his Godhead now. He was always the eternal Son of God. He never gave up his deity or his sonship. But he laid aside. What did he lay aside? I don't know. It says he emptied himself and he took upon him the form of a servant. He who was in the form of God is found on earth in the form of a servant. So he says, Father is greater than I. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
My Father is greater than I, and he's going back to the Father, and then he's going to lay aside, just as he laid aside the form of Godhead up there. So he's going to lay aside the form of a servant and the form of man. and he's going back to the glory and he'd be back in his own place as the eternal son of god amid the glory equal with god i and the father are ones hard for them to understand it i'm sure in that upper room and hard for you to understand it after all these years but these are the wonderful facts about the glorious person of the lord jesus christ now finally the lord leaves the supper table.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. The prince of this world is Satan. He is the prince of the power of the air. Ephesians chapter two, and he's the one who's ruling the world today. They think they're working out these men, their wonderful plans, but behind the whole thing is Satan. It says Ephesians two, You hath he quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the course of this age it is, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
The prince of the power of the air. He calls him here the prince of this world. Satan is the prince of this world. And Satan is coming, he says. The prince of this world coming. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, I believe that Satan came. And when he stood before Pilate in the Judgment Hall, Satan was there. He was egging those people on. He was urging them to do what they did. And when they nailed into a cross, Satan was behind the very hammers.
that nailed him to the cross. The prince of this world cometh. And what did he want to find? When he comes to you and me, he finds something wrong in it. Poor Job, how he suffered. The Lord said, If you consider my righteous servant Job, there's nothing wrong with Job. He says, Let me have a go at him. See what I can do. And he tried to do that with the Son of God. He said he found nothing in me. He who knew no sin. Satan could find nothing sinful. It cometh. The prince of this world cometh. and has nothing in me. He couldn't find one point in the Son of God of which he could accuse him.
He was holy, harmless, the spotless, holy Son of God. And Satan came and he did all he could at Calvary. And there the fulfillment of that prophecy way, way back in Genesis three, Thou shalt bruise his heel. That's what happened at the place called Calvary. Thank God the Lord Jesus bruised his head and he says, He defeated Satan. Prince of the power of the air, he might be, but he's defeated. And the day is shortly coming when the Son of God is going to take him and have him cast into the bottomless pit.
And Satan's day will have ended. but that the world might know verse thirty one the Lord leaves the supper table but that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even so I do arise let us go in how many times the Lord have talked about the hour right back in the second chapter He said to his mother, Mother, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. How many times he said, My hour is not yet come? Jesus went not up to the feast because his hour had not come.
But in the twelve chapter, when he raises his eyes, he says, Now, verse twenty-six, Jesus answered, The hour is come. The hour is come. Verse twenty-seven of chapter twelve, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. And now he says, Arise, let us go hence. The hour had come. And he did everything according to the plan and pattern set by the Father. And God had given him the commandment, what to do. And he says, As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
Arise, let us go hence. What a difficult path for the path of the Son of God. God had told him and given him a commandment to go to the place called Calvary and make an end of sin and glorify God's name. and bear the sin of the whole world in his own body. And he says, Arise, let us go ahead. Tremendous words of the Son of God as he leaves the supper table. That the world may know. He tells us that the world can know. If we maintain unity, we'll get to that one day. I hope in the seventeenth chapter when he's praying that they all may be one that the world may know.
And he says that, if we love one another, by this you all may know, you are my disciples. But this is how the world is going to know that he is the Son of God. But that the world may know that I love the Father. As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. And the world today can look on to that lonely pathway the Lord Jesus sought from the upper room to Gethsemane. from Gethsemane to the various judgments of that night, and up the Via Dolorosa and out through the gate of the city and across to the Skohill to be crucified there for you and me. And by that the world knows that he loved the Father.
Beloved, I wonder if God's given you and me some job to do. If you want to know whether I love God, if I want to know whether you love God, love the Father, let me see you doing the job that God gave you to do. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's difficult, sometimes we feel all the world's against us, but if God's given us something to do, let's go right on, right on, right on, let nothing stop us, that the world may know that thou hast said to me, arise, let us go hence. I've always said, said from this platform many times, that that's where he left the upper room.
And when you get to chapter eighteen, it says, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron. And I've always said that chapter fifteen, sixteen and seventeen were spoken on the way. Now I've taken that road. I've walked from the upper room, zigzag path down to the Brook-Kedron and into the Garden of Gethsemane. And it's quite a walk down those steep slopes. And I've always imagined that's where he said these words. I've been reading some commentaries this week and I find all commentators are not agreed on that. Some commentators say, well, He couldn't have said those wonderful things at the time of the Passover.
There were so many people. How could he say those wonderful things of chapters fifteen, sixteen, seventeen as he went through the crowd? Don't forget it was late at night when he was going out. But I don't know. Some have even suggested that he left the supper chamber and went into another chamber. But he never talks about two chambers here. There was a large upper room furnished. That's where he was. And some have thought he got up from the table and the rest of his conversation was standing when he said, Arise, let us go hence. But the scripture does say, Arise, let us go hence. And so far I'm not convinced that he didn't go out then, hence, and left the upper room and went out on his road to Calvary.
So this is his legacy to his people, my people. But what do we know about it? Some of you are not saved if there's any here this morning. You don't know peace. You can't know peace. Peace I give unto you. The Lord Jesus comes now in the last moments of our meeting. And he says the first to you, Peace I give unto you. And we get peace with God through faith. By faith. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. All you have to do is come to the Lord Jesus as a sinner, bow at his presence and tell him you're a sinner, and accept the great sacrifice he made at the place called Calvary, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ at faith, and thou shalt be saved.
And you'll get his peace. And for every other troubled heart this morning, the Lord says, My peace I give to you. amid all the trying circumstances, let's trust him all the way, even though he says, arise, let us go, hence it may be. I don't know. Maybe to a funeral. Maybe to a sick bed. We don't know. Maybe to problems we can't understand. Arise, let us go hence. He said, you'll have my peace all the way. May we trust him more. Should we pray? Blessed Lord Jesus, we bow before thee to thank thee for these wonderful words. How long they've enjoyed, thy words to thy disciples, thine own in that upper room.
And now we hear these last words. Arise, let us go hence. And we don't know what we're going out to, Lord, as we leave this room today, but we thank thee we can go out with thy peace, the knowledge of sins forgiven, and with that wonderful gift thou hast given us, my peace, to be quiet and calm, let not our hearts be troubled or dismayed, as we face what lies ahead till Jesus comes. We seek thy parting blessing in our Savior's precious name. Amen.